Compassion and Enlightenment

Compassion and Enlightenment

Shravakas and solitary realizers
Spring from the kings of Munis.
Buddhas spring from Bodhisattvas.
The compassionate mind, non-dual awareness,
And the altruistic mind of Enlightenment
Give rise to jinaputras, children of Conquerors.

Mercy alone is perceived as the seed
Of a Conqueror’s abundant harvest,
As water for growth, and as
Fruition in long enjoyment.
Thus I hail compassion at the beginning.

Homage to compassion for gatis,
Powerless migrators, like buckets dropped in a well,
First clinging to some self, an ‘I’,
Then growing attached to things – ‘Mine’.

Homage to compassion for gatis,
Evanescent and empty of inherent existence.
Like the moon in the rippling water.Madhyamakavatara, CANDRAKIRTI